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The Cisco® 7600 Series Session Border Controller (SBC) builds on the continuous system operation and multimedia scalability provided by the market-leading Cisco 7600 Series Routers. With the integration of SBC functions into Layer 2 and Layer 3 services provided by the Cisco 7600 Series, the Cisco 7600 SBC eliminates the need for overlay networks and standalone appliances. It provides an open and flexible architecture for all service provider deployments, whether for peering with other service providers or for direct end-customer access. With its ability to support unified and distributed SBC deployments, the Cisco 7600 SBC offers cable, wireline, and wireless service providers superior deployment flexibility. By supporting IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and non-IMS services, the Cisco 7600 SBC further accelerates network convergence while providing investment protection for Cisco 7600 Series Routers.

With the rapid growth of IP telephony and other real-time services such as IP video, service providers are deploying SBC appliances at the provider edge to manage VoIP traffic in different scenarios. These scenarios include IP private branch exchange (PBX)-to-service provider peering, VPN interworking with multiple sites for the same customer and multiple customers, enterprise-to-hosted IP telephony interworking, and residential IP telephony. The Cisco 7600 SBC builds on Cisco Layer 2 and Layer 3 services and integrates the SBC function by providing the following features:

• Protocol and media interworking

• Session routing

• Hosted NAT and firewall traversal

• Security and AAA

• Intra-and inter-VPN interconnect and optimization

• Media transcoding with an external media server

SBC Deployment Models

For both the service provider-to-service provider and service provider-to-access applications, the innovative architecture of the Cisco 7600 SBC gives operators a choice of a unified or distributed signaling deployment.

In the unified deployment model, the Cisco 7600 SBC acts as both a Data Border Element (DBE) for media-related functions and as a Signaling Border Element (SBE) for signaling-related functions. In the distributed deployment model, the Cisco 7600 SBC as a DBE hosts the media-related functions and communicates with an external signaling function (SBE) over an industry-standard interface based on the H.248 Protocol. The flexibility of the Cisco SBC design allows for either deployment model using the same hardware and software (Figure 2).

Figure 2. SBC Deployment Models

Product Highlights

• High performance and scalability: With 10 Gbps per slot of processing capacity for each Cisco ACE 7600 Application Control Engine Module, the Cisco 7600 SBC can scale to more than 200,000 simultaneous sessions on a single chassis. With its high-throughput interface into the Cisco 7600 switching fabric, the SBC is designed not only to scale for VoIP sessions but also to support high-bandwidth video sessions such as TelePresence.

• Industry-standard protocols and interfaces: The Cisco 7600 SBC incorporates support for industry-standard protocols for VoIP and video, including Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and H.323. The Cisco 7600 SBC offers broad support for various SIP- and H.323-based services. In addition, the Cisco 7600 SBC supports the Telecoms and Internet Converged Services and Protocols for Advanced Networks (TISPAN) Ia interface, which is based on the H.248 Protocol and enables a distributed implementation of SBC signaling and media flow.

• Maximum flexibility: The native implementation of SBC functions on the Cisco 7600 Series Router provides a host of additional capabilities that are not possible with standalone SBC appliances. Service providers can now combine Layer 2 and Layer 3 services offered with the SBC solution to not only derive the benefits of network convergence but also to add other unique services. Operators can apply SBC functions at a more granular VPN level, and can combine business VPN services with business voice and video services. Similarly, operators can combine network-based security services such as IP Security (IPsec) and firewall with SBC functions. These new features have anticipated the array of new applications possible with converged networks.

Table 1 lists the features of the Cisco SBC on the Cisco 7600 Series Router, Table 2 lists information about compliance to industry standards and specifications, and Table 3 gives hardware specifications.

• Distributed deployment model: Media functions are hosted on the Cisco 7600 ACE Module, with a service control interface based on the TISPAN Ia interface (H.248) provided (supported by the Cisco PGW 2200 Softswitch functioning as a SBE).

Redundancy and high availability

• Support for 1:1 active/standby model intra- and interchasis

• Support for hot standby (stable calls are maintained on failover)

• Same alias IP address for both active and standby SBC

VPN interconnect and optimization

• Through Layer 3 VPN awareness, support for interconnect and security for sessions between two different VPNs with overlapping addresses

• Optimized media flow for sessions on the same VPN

• Virtual Route Forwarding (VRF)-aware Domain Name System (DNS) query

Number analysis

• Caller and callee number analysis and manipulation

• Call categorization based on caller and callee numbers

Session routing

• Fully configurable session routing engine integrated into the SBC

• Routing by category

• Least-cost and weighed routing

• Time-based routing

• Routing based on source and destination username and domain-name matching using regular expression

Admission control

• Comprehensive set of functions for admission control

• CAC per session, per endpoint, per dialed number, per peer or adjacency, and per VPN to control maximum concurrent sessions, maximum bandwidth, maximum call-setup rate, and codec restrictions

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